When preparing molecular presentations for collaborators, conferences, or students, one common challenge is how to make complex models appear naturally and clearly during animations. Too often, researchers resort to tweaking transparency or manually toggling visibility, which feels clunky and disrupts the narrative flow of a molecular story.
The Show animation in SAMSON offers an elegant solution to that exact problem. It streamlines how you reveal molecular nodes during an animation, preserving clarity while maintaining full control over visibility at each stage of a timeline.
Why “Show” Instead of Transparency?
The Show animation does not slowly increase opacity to make a node visible. Instead, it leverages visibility toggles for clarity—meaning structures simply appear (or are shown) at a defined keyframe and remain visible for the rest of the animation segment. This avoids potential confusion caused by semi-transparent structures, especially when working with large or detailed molecular assemblies.
How It Works
Here’s how the Show animation works internally:
- Before keyframe 2, the targeted nodes are kept hidden.
- At keyframe 2, the nodes are instantly shown.
- From keyframe 2 through keyframe 3, those nodes remain visible.
This simple structure makes it incredibly easy to coordinate the appearance of specific molecular components as your animation progresses—whether you are highlighting a ligand binding site or gradually building up a biocomplex.
Adding the Animation
Setting this up is straightforward:
- Select the nodes you want to show (such as atoms, groups, or entire molecules).
- In the Animation panel of the Animator, double-click the “Show” effect.
- Adjust the three keyframes as needed using the timeline interface.
You can always move keyframes to better synchronize the animation with other effects or narrative cues. This flexibility allows for precise storytelling in scientific animations.
Customization: Easing Curves
To refine the animation feel, you can apply an easing curve to customize how properties like position or other parameters interpolate across frames. While the visibility switch used in Show is instantaneous, combining it with other animations or easing curves can elevate the overall experience.
When to Use It
This animation is especially useful if you’re:
- Gradually assembling a large molecular complex
- Introducing structural changes through time (e.g. docking, unfolding)
- Building educational sequences where clarity is essential
Rather than piecing together manual visibility toggles—or using sequences of Hidden and Shown animations—the Show animation wraps it all in one concise effect.
Learn more about the Show animation and how to integrate it into your animation projects.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.